Snipping Amazon Modules

I've had notifications of a few of my hubs that have "snipped" with a message explaining that this has been done by a moderator so that my article could be moved to one of the new niche sites.

Now all of these snips have been for Amazon modules. I've not been spammy about these. Most hubs just have 4 or less (more recently I've been adding 2), and they relate directly to the article - either as books which I have cited information from for the article, or further reading literature.

Amazon modules have helped me draw in a good amount of income from HubPages. I don't make the pay quota each month, but I'd say about one third of my revenue comes from people following the modules and buying items from Amazon.

So I want to know why these are being removed and how this would be a benefit to the article and my income as a writer. Is it going to be detrimental for me to simply undo the snip? Or should I leave it alone?

No, Amazon capsules are not completely prohibited on the new niche sites but they are rarely approved.

It seems that HubPages is trying to protect the niche sites from future Google slaps by second-guessing what Google will crack down on in future.

Right now Google is saying affiliate ads are fine provided they are relevant and helpful to the reader. HubPages takes the definition of "relevant" to the extreme - so a crockpot can be judged "not relevant" to a cooking Hub, for instance.

HubPages has also decided that Google will, at some time in the future, insist that if you include a product it must be something you can recommend from personal experience. I have no idea where that idea comes from but as you can see from Robin's reply, it's gospel at HubPages and if you put those products back in, you have no hope of your Hubs being moved to the niche sites.

Personally I think it's ludicrous that a Hub can be labelled a "sales pitch" if you include, say, a well-reviewed book about the Hub's topic in ONE capsule on an information-rich Hub. But that's what HP seems to think and it's their site, so what can you do?

In order to warrant an Amazon product, you should have personal experience with it. If it's a book, you should have read the book and tell your reader why it's the best book on the topic. Most of the time products, although related, are not inserted in the best interest of the reader. A question that I always ask myself, would I include this product even if I had no monetary gain from it. Personally, I feel most hubs do not need products. You lose trust from the reader if they aren't thoughtfully inserted because your article becomes a sales pitch rather than an informative piece. That being said, some hubs do need products. We just have to be careful to make sure we are providing products for the reader not for ourselves.

If we have snipped products, I wouldn't add them back. It could result in your hub becoming defeature or it may not move to a vertical site.

It's a shame really. I write about history and folklore mostly, and the people reading and sharing my Hubs are people that enjoy reading and finding further sources on these topics. So including Amazon capsules with the books was something that I felt was relevant and added value. More so than the seemingly large number of advertising modules that tended to pop up with all sorts of rubbish, such as how to lose belly fat.

I don't want to ruin my articles by trying to include a sales pitch for these books so will just leave them out if they get snipped.

I do wonder though; at the end of each article I credit my sources as any good paper should. Would it be appropriate therefore to replace the generic list with the books in Amazon capsules instead, under the header "Sources" if relevant?

Personally I disagree with HubPages's stance on this - but it is their site so it's their privilege to set the rules as they see fit.

You do not need to add a "sales pitch" for any of the books you choose, but if you want to include one, you need to add a sentence or two saying why you are recommending that particular book. The idea is that they could easily find "a book" on the subject just by going to Amazon - you need to add value by choosing the best book for them, and telling them why it's the best book.

Hint: you will find that text links are more likely to be approved than capsules. You can use the image of the book cover from Amazon as an illustration (BUT don't put a source link in the photo capsule as you won't get commission if someone clicks on it). When you create a text link you'll see there's an option to select an Amazon product and that will include your affiliate link.

As for the idea of replacing your references with Amazon capsules - no. A capsule is judged by the same rules no matter where it is placed - and besides, it would be pointless. Experience over the years has shown that capsules or links placed right at the end of a Hub do not make sales.

Thanks Marisa, that's very useful information. A lot of writers I know with whom I have been chatting with behind the scenes, are also surprised by this change, and are upset by the loss of revenue generated through Amazon capsules. I hope that HubPages revisits their policy. I would rather see less adverts on my articles as this is far more trashy looking and off-putting to readers, and allows me to instead select one or two relevant Amazon items.

I'll have a think about how I am presenting Amazon capsules and see if I can find a way to incorporate these in without them getting the snip!

I've done that with placing them at the end as a bibliography or sources, and they have snipped those out as well...

I agree, for more "educational" articles on history and folk tradition, our audience are readers who want to read and want to know where to find more info. I thought the books were relevant and helpful to readers.

The strategy is to make their new sites do better with search engines... but my topics aren't high web search traffic topics, I get most of my traffic through promoting on FB, and my audience wants book recommendations! They don't want us to be able to self promote and link to our own FB page... which is asinine because building our own following as a writier means we can drive more traffic to HP!

Oh well. I might just go back to putting more on my personal website where I can link to books and also to my FB page.

Precisely, Carolyn. Not many people are going to run a Google search on a niche set of educational topics. I write to present new information on events and folklore to a fan following on other social media sites, which in turn brings people to HubPages.

These people really aren't going to be interested in trashy generic adverts such as "Wow! She lost 10 pounds with this simple trick!". They are going to be interested in books about the topic that I have written about.

Time and time again, my Amazon capsules have been followed, and purchases have been made.

I can't see this stance on snipping my modules helping me to generate income as a writer.

If you have a personal website which is dedicated to that subject area, then in the long run it will get more traffic and earn more income than Hubs.

My advice would be to use HubPages to drive traffic TO your articles on your website, not vice versa. Never link in both directions - you can have links from your website to your Hubs, or from your Hubs to your website, but never both at once.

In your shoes, I'd pick two or three of my best-performing Hubs to leave on HP, and move the rest to your site.

Tip: once you've got content on your site, it's not a good idea to have your "About Me" page as your front page. A new reader arriving at your site doesn't give a hoot who you are - they want to be assured that your site has lots of content they're going to love. So your front page needs a title that says what the site is about, not who it's written by.

Also look into ways to monetize your site. If you Google some of your keywords, (e.g. "fairies affiliate", "folklore affiliate"), you'll find companies you can be an affiliate for. Start a regular newsletter and once you have a good enrolment, you can start approaching companies to offer paid advertising too, using your traffic and newsletter circulation as proof of your popularity.

Yeah this is annoying. I had one moved to their new Owlcation site. I had a "Bibliography" text capsule at the end which stated that all of the Amazon books linked in the article were used in my research for the piece. Well the dumbasses removed all the books but left that bit in. So a reader will see that and be like "uuuhhh, what books?" I emailed and told them and said "real smooth editing there."

Linking article of Hubpage is at all not a great idea but there are few articles whose theme are inclined to motivate and attract too much mass and have a strong connection with dynamic market value, is to be integrated with Hubpage that will enhance it self the value of Hubpage and its popularity in parallel with its other relevant virtue.

The businesses and work requirement will drastically may increase because of best available article. same time it will spread more this knowledge sharing platform which would generate more intellectuals to carry the better work.

Therefore, I strongly agree with my few friend pertaining to article integration and disagree in most of the cases where quality of writing has not been articulated.

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